Guided Tour in Second Life with Jan Northoff (artist):
"Vituality is a Lie"

Tour in German / admission free

The artist Jan Northoff is the founder of the Cyber City,
Berlin in 3D, Second Life, that with its close visual links to
the physical reality of Berlin offers an opportunity to design
a virtual image and platform of how you want to live. NewBERLIN
was founded in 2006. There are currently 150,844 New Berliners
(avatars born in New Berlin), and 1.5 million users of Second
Life every day (November 2009).

For the exhibition The World as Stage Northoff has created
the 2D installation Every Avatar is an Artist as part of "newBERLIN
Art Festival 2009", which open on the 20th November 2009.
This is a yearly new media art festival held in Berlin in 3D's
virtual public space. The festival also serves as an introduction
to the interactive, open source platform newBERLIN, which the
guided tour will present and give an introduction to. Furthermore,
Northoff will discuss the temporary cultural approach to the
problem or chance of the ongoing "virtualisation" and
the upcoming revolution of communication.

For more information: www.BERLINin3D.com
www.YOUin3D.com

Jan Northoff (*1977 in Heidelberg, lives and works in Berlin)
Artificial and organic growth is the focus of Northoffs digital
interactive often socially inspired works. After system design
and art studies in Kassel he researched for many years as a "techno
digital" artist the space between traditional and radical
art institutions, sometimes through mixed media installations.
Jan Northoff is the founder of "newBERLIN Second Life"
(www.berlinin3d.de/com <http://www.berlinin3d.de/com> ).
In 2008, he created its Cybercity "newBERLIN" play
in an international network of 32 artists. His group exhibitions
include Virtual Moves at Statens Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen
(2008) and the Time Based Art Festival at Portland Institute
for Contemporary Art in Portland, Oregon (2006).

The spatial installations of Tilman Wendland celebrate what
is already there (space, artworks and visitors). Wendland is
inspired by the Austrian artist and graphic designer Herbert
Bayer (1900­1985), Bayer collaborated with various members
of the Bauhaus movement. Untitled was influenced by Bayer's approach
to exhibition design, which took into account the viewer's field
of vision. Bayer's Diagram of 360 Degrees Field of Vision (1935)
integrates the viewer's body as central point of departure for
exhibition design and places display surfaces in the whole field
of vision, not just at eye height, but also above and below.
The installation Untitled showcased at n.b.k. addresses the exhibition
space as a stage not only for the artworks, but also for the
viewers. Wendland uses light materials that are easy to craft
like white cardboard and wooden panels. Creating a parcours that
guides visitors through the show, Wendland's partitions are easily
marked and bear traces of their handling during the installation
process, wear from visitor interaction,
and the inevitable effects of gravity.